A function of surveillance cameras has been known which performs a so-called “preset tour”, in which surveillance is carried out by performing a tour operation of a plurality of photographing points. Furthermore, a surveillance system has been known in which an external surveillance control device generates, in a random manner, the photographing order of photographing points, the moving speeds of movement between the photographing points, photographing times at the photographing points, or the like for the preset tour.
A surveillance camera device is disclosed in PTL 1. In the surveillance camera device, a plurality of photographing positions are preset in advance, and an external control device generates, in a random manner, the photographing order of the preset positions, a movement path of movement between the preset positions, the stay times at the preset positions, and the like for a tour operation of the preset positions. Then, the external control device transmits a control instruction to an imaging device.
The surveillance camera device disclosed in PTL 1 is configured such that the control device, which is provided outside a camera, controls a random operation for a preset tour. Under such circumstances, a surveillance camera which is configured to generate a random preset tour operation and control its own operation, has been considered. In the case of such a surveillance camera, it is assumed that an operation which needs to be performed in a random manner in the preset tour may be realized by setting by an external client device.
In view of the above assumption, surveillance cameras of two different capabilities are available in the market: surveillance cameras, such as the surveillance camera device disclosed in PTL 1, that are set, by an external device, to perform a random operation in a preset tour; and surveillance cameras that are capable of performing a random preset tour operation.
In the latter case, there is a problem that it is difficult for a user to externally determine whether or not a target surveillance camera is capable of performing a random operation. In addition, in order to determine whether or not the target surveillance camera is capable of performing a random operation, the user needs to actually try a random operation to determine whether a random operation can be performed. Such operations are complicated.